It has long bothered me that the attitude of most leaders towards the growth of their flock inclines towards condemnation. What I mean is, most leaders (and I mean almost all) seem to blame the flock for their lack of spiritual growth. This I have found to be blame largely misplaced (see Eze. 13: 18 -23).

One of the problems that I find that destroys our effectiveness as representatives of the Kingdom of God is that we tend to forget where we were coming from; we tend to pay no attention to the processes through which we have been passed, and most importantly, we tend not to bother to identify those processes in the life of others. This is largely because much of what we call the Church is locked in a trap of fanatical beliefs provoked by half corked understanding of the nature of God or partially misleading teachings of "spiritual fathers".

Imagine a child (and I am using this illustration on the premise that God’s principles work similarly on all dimensions), you expect it to grow, but you do not feed it right; that is you may even be feeding it but not in the right quantities, not the right ratios, not at the right times or even not the right food (may be a baby dog you are feeding with goat food), you might as well be poisoning the child, for if the child does not die outright, it will certainly not grow right. Give any child the conducive environment it needs and it will not require bullying to grow.

What we most loose sight of is that God is the true Shepard of His sheep. I remember, most distinctly, the stages my own spiritual development had to go through; when I had my most profound encounter with the Holy Spirit. When I sought God’s face on why I was not growing spiritually, His answer was simple, “The soul that sins will surely die”, meaning that the lifestyle of sin will surely kill my relationship with Him. My understanding of sin was the violation of codes of behavior that the Church at large regard as righteousness, so, my response to His answer was thus, “I will never match up, I will end up in hell surely. I know myself, I will never be able to live up to all those rules no matter how hard I try”. His response to that was, “Never mind all those. Just do what I tell you to do”.

Since then, I can remember the various stages through which God had brought me through; dealing with specific aspects of my life at a time. It was not a spontaneous, instantaneous change, it was not even a continuous, uninterrupted change, but one thing I know, God never condemned me for not dealing with an aspect of my life He had not dealt with, neither was He in a rush to see me change.

One other thing I did not see Him do ; He never sided with the criticism of the self righteous who felt I was slow in growing, He even showed me what was wrong about their demands; where it originated from and what provoked it.

True spiritual growth is initiated by God. It begins when God speaks to our hearts through any of the various mediums He uses; It is not the Bible that makes the Christian grow (2Co 3:6 ¶ Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. {giveth life: or, quickeneth}), it is the working of the power of God directed by a work that reveals or exposes the intentions of God to our understanding. Given the right environment, with my experience with Church people, most Christians will grow (Albert at different rates and in different dimensions, but grow they will). But why don’t they?

1.) They are not fed the right food. What I mean is this, if I am right in implying that the Bible is not automatically ‘the Word of God’, if I am right the word must express the present intentions of God for it to be ‘the Word of God’, then it is possible for Bible to be preached; even doctrinally sound and all, and yet the Word of God may be scarce.

Jer. 10: 20 – 21;

“20 My tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth of me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.

 21 For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.”

(Also see Jer. 23: 21 – 40) 

2.) What God wants each Christian to grow into is according to His purpose. Thus, it is His to determine the direction of growth in the flock; especially of those who will play leading roles in His plans.

Is. 48: 17 – 19;

“17 Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.

 18 O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:

 19 Thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before me.” 

3.) Spiritual growth is timed at God’s clock; like every thing in faith. If we rush ‘spiritual growth’ ahead of God’s timing, we will build foundation errors (Is. 28: 11 – 13)

It is important for God to have dealt properly with an arena of our development before lunching into another, and it is important to have sufficient breathing space to rest and for lessons to sink in before moving on, and yet, not enough time to let errors creep in, so that we do not come out ‘bent’ and, ultimately, crippled in our development.

Lack of true spiritual growth (I say ‘true’ because what most refer to as ‘spiritual’ growth is actually social in nature; it often is ‘church’ cultural adoption) is the sole preserve of false religion.

Eze. 16: 20 – 22;

“20 Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter,

 21 That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?

 22 And in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and bare, and wast polluted in thy blood.”

(Also see Hos. 2: 2 – 9) 

To whatever extent you are devoted to God, He will be devoted to you. To whatever extent you are devoted to the things of God, He will devote His power to your spiritual (and otherwise) development.

3John 1: 2;

“2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” 

In conclusion, let me share with you a vision of spiritual growth through the following passages.

            Is. 61: 3 – 9, 62: 3 – 12, 66: 8 – 11

                  Ps. 87: 1 – 7

                  Zec. 8: 2 – 9

                  Mic. 7: 14 - 17